East Side Story
by T.J. Ryan 94
Summary: The streets of London are filled with gang crime, especially from two rival gangs as the racist tension grows stronger and the leader of Mons (an all black gang) finds himself falling for the brother of the leader of the all white gang Caps, could these two teens be fated for a terrible fate or fight to stay together? MODERN ROMEO & JULIET WITH A TWIST - (Read and Review)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Yo readers, new fanfic here and I'm only really writing this because I have not been able to sleep and I thought writing would make me fall asleep (couldn't have been more wrong!)**

**Okay, this is a modern adaptation of ****_Romeo and Juliet_****, but with OCs and I was inspired to write this for one reason: I read a short novel called ****_Romeo & Julian_**** on Amazon, but I quickly returned it as I realised how terribly written it was. **

**Long story cut VERY SHORT - 1950s America, Romeo is a white dude whose dad is a racist and a homophobic idiot, Julian is a black guy whose an dad was killed by a racist group and his mother thinks no one should trust white people, Romeo's school is the first to allow black people in their school (Julian among them), an attraction builds between them and Julian is bullied because he's black, Julian and Romeo start a secret relationship and declare their love after three chapters (way too quick and completely rushed), Romeo and Julian struggle to keep their relationship secret and they both cry A LOT (they're 18 years old! GROW UP!), Julian gets stabbed by a white boy, Julian and Romeo go to prom with too different girls and once they're alone they declare their love for each other and in the next breath completely random jealously and they have an argument about both having female dates, they plan to run away together, Romeo CHEATS on Julian with his on-off girlfriend, Julian escapes being raped by a group of white boys but is killed and set on fire... FINALLY on Graduation, Romeo gives a completely unmoving speech about how these people destroyed the love between him and Julian (completely forgetting he cheated on the guy he's meant to love) and shoots himself... Oh and this all happens in TEN WEEKS, which is even more stupid - a completely pointless story and I wouldn't recommend it.**

**Now I'm very open-minded when it comes to reading and I personally think if a story has a good plot and characters that are realistic, it doesn't matter if the main couple are straight, gay or lesbian - love is love.**

**Okay, rant over hahaha**

**Here's my new story and I hope you enjoy :)**

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**Preface: ****_July 2007_**

The air was cold as night descended on the city of London, the unusually quiet streets made no sound and looked more like a ghost town than the most lively city in Europe on a summer's night. The only source of life came from a nearby bookstore, it's windows ablaze with light as a kind faced brunette woman walked out of the shop, a small boy with short brown hair clutching her hand and beaming with excitement.

Mrs Cullen looked at Jamie, his face full of happiness as he held a book bag and beamed at his mother. Jamie was barely seven years old and his reading ability was fantastic, he flew through any book he read and would talk none stop about the characters or storylines that made no sense to her but she pretended to understand just for his benefit. That was why when the last J.K. Rowling novel was set to be released, Jamie had begged her to take him to get a copy and reluctantly she agreed, partly because she knew it would be impossible to buy him the book the following day.

"Thanks, Mum!" Jamie said happily as they walked to the underground train station and Mrs Cullen went to say it was no trouble again, but the sight of three hooded youths watching them made her wary and she took hold of her son's hand as they walked onto the platform.

To her relief, the platform was deserted apart from them and she sighed with relief, sitting on the bench and wrapped her son in her arms as they waited for the train.

"I want to be a writer," Jamie said quietly, avoiding his mother's eyes "but I'm obviously not any good…"

Mrs Cullen frowned at Jamie, knowing where this negativity was coming from. Her sixteen year old Trevor constantly teased Jamie for writing short novels and reading, but even at Jamie's age he had a talent with words and she knew this skill would only increase as he became older. Mrs Cullen hugged her son closer, smiling into his bright blue eyes that were so similar to his father's - a father who left three months after he was born and never got to know either of his sons, but she was a proud mother because she had raised her children on her own.

"You can do whatever you want, Jamie." Mrs Cullen told her son firmly and Jamie looked at her with doubtful eyes.

"Really?" Jamie asked hesitantly as she nodded, grinning at him.

"Definitely, I know you'll become an incredible writer" Mrs Cullen told her son truthfully and Jamie's mood lightened instantly.

A black youth walked down the stairs and past them, winking at Mrs Cullen with a sly smile and she glared back at the young man. She just wanted to get her child home safely, because the look on that teenager's face was starting to make her uneasy. As the train arrived on the station and mother and child got to their feet, a group of black boys swarmed out of the shadows and surrounded them.

Acting on intinct, Mrs Cullen pulled her son behind her back to stand protectively in front of him and threw her handbag to the nearest youth.

"Just take it!" she begged, but the boys made no move to leave and one pulled a gun from his pocket.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU BITCH!" He yelled, putting the gun dangerously close to her face as the other boys jeered.

"Fucking slag!" another yelled, his face full of hatred for a woman he didn't even know. The fear that Mrs Cullen's felt was clear, but hearing Jamie's silent tears gave her inner strength and she held her son's hand that felt so small and vulnerable in hers.

"Shh, Jamie… it's okay," she comforted Jamie, looking up as the boys suddenly boarded the train that had now come to a stop - all this had happened in a few seconds. Mrs Cullen's breathed a shaky sigh of relief as the doors closed, but that quickly turned to horror as the doors reopened and the youth aimed the gun at the woman.

"NO!" her scream was cut off as he fired the gun and she collapsed to the ground, a pool of blood oozing from her chest. Her lifeless eyes staring blankly as the terrified boy began screaming.

"MUM!" Jamie yelled tearfully, his eyes flooding with tears as he prayed that someone would come to help… no one did "MUM, MUM, MUM!"

The youths walked as the boy continued to scream, staring at his lifeless mother as the train left the station and disappeared into the night.

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**Author's Note: Thanks for reading and make sure you leave a review, it's always great to get feedback on my writing and hear what you guys think.**

**The next chapter will be ten years later, Jamie will be seventeen and that will be when the story really starts and Rashawn (AKA - Romeo) will make his first appearance.**

**Not sure when I'll post the next chapter, if this story gets good feedback I'll definitely do it sooner :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Two (****Ten years later - Present Day)**

_Jamie_

3rd September, this day was a day I'd been sort of dreading all summer for one big reason - it was my first day back at school and I was dreading it. Sixth Form was where the serious work started, I needed to use this year to get the right grades and get into university. That was the plan, apply to Oxford University next year and hope to God that I get a scholarship… because there's no way in hell that Trevor would pay for me to go to university, even if we had the money.

Pulling my rucksack higher over my shoulder, I stopped at my locker in the packed corridor, opening it and pulling my books out for my first class - English Literature and I turned to see a blonde curly haired girl running towards me, her light brown eyes shining with excitement and I couldn't help but a grin as my best friend Vanessa (or Nessa as I called her) pulled me into a hug.

"I've missed you!" Nessa said happily as she pulled out of the hug and beamed at me, pulling a small gift wrapped present and gave it to me "Happy Belated-Birthday!"

My birthday was in June and Ness had missed it because she was seeing relatives in America, but I wasn't bothered… I hated my birthdays. At home, birthdays were never really celebrated and to me it was a reminder that another year had past since Mum's death. Trevor and I lived together, but we weren't close and if it wasn't for Nessa I wouldn't even acknowledge I had just turned seventeen.

I kept a cheerful smile on my face as I opened the present and saw it was a hardcover copy of _Wuthering Heights_, I looked at Nessa with a more genuine smile and she looked proud of herself.

"Thanks Ness, it's great." I said honestly and Vanessa shrugged casually.

"If it was any other guy, I'd be in deep shit," Vanessa said, grabbing my arm and pulling me along the corridor with a sly grin "but you're so easy, babe. I just have to buy you a good book."

True. I still loved reading and I fly through 700 page novels with ease. The writing, that was a different story and Vanessa had quickly learnt not to ask if I was writing any good stories. Don't get me wrong, I still write, I just don't like others reading my work nowadays.

We walked into the classroom and sat at a desk in the front of the class, which I always hated but Vanessa said she hated sitting behind Mark Brent and smelling his farts - he did actually stink and I got her point. I looked around the class, it was more or less full and I noticed that the boys from the local estate were sitting in the back of the class, these guys were mainly black or mixed raced with the occasional white boy that acted like an idiot to fit in with his gang. I don't care what skin colour you are, but at this school there was a big divide between the teenagers from the suburban part of town (aka Me) and the teenagers from the council estate that was quite rough.

My eyes met a pair of dark brown eyes and I was suddenly looking at Rashawn Mason. Rashawn was a really handsome black guy, with a strong muscular build, a short cropped haircut and the most brilliant brown eyes. Rashawn gave me a small smile and I returned one back, before turning back to front of the class as the teacher entered. In all the years we had been at this school, Rashawn and I never really hung out but we got on if we had to work on an assignment together and I actually thought he was a decent guy. But our lives were complete opposites, so we weren't exactly moving out of our way to become proper mates and I wouldn't really want to risk Trevor finding out I was hanging out with boys from the estate.

Mrs Richards - the ONLY lesbian at this school that was comfortable with her sexuality smiled at the class, brushing her greying hair behind her ear and pulled a stack of books from her back. I read the title on the spin and saw it was copies of _Romeo & Juliet_, looks like that was what we were going to be studying this term.

"Right, did everyone have a good summer?" she asked brightly and there was a mumbled response from the back of the class and a few excited yeses from the nerds in the middle and the front - and before you asked, that didn't include me.

"How's your bird, Miss?" called Brendan from the back of the class, who was a tall and lanky black guy with a shaved head "she doin good, yeah?"

"Not that this is relevant, but my wife is fine." Mrs Richards answered shortly and I heard Brendan snigger, clearly finding the fact that our English teacher had married a woman highly amusing.

Just goes to show how mature some people are.

"She's quite fit, Miss!" Marcus, who was mixed race and slightly cubby called and Brendan's laughter intensified.

I turned and glared at the two of them, seriously getting pissed off because they were being completely out of order.

"Will you shut up, you pair of twats!" I snapped and that stopped their laughing, looking at me as if I was a creature from another planet.

"What did you say?!" Marcus snapped, glaring daggers at me because I had told him to pack it in and I couldn't really care less if he was pissed off.

"Enough!" Miss Richards ordered and I reluctantly turned to face the teacher, feeling Marcus' gaze burn into the back of my head "I'll send the lot of you out if you continue to disrupt my class, is that clear?"

"Yes, Miss…" was the muttered response from Brendan, Marcus and I.

Vanessa sat awkwardly beside me, avoiding my eyes and playing nervously with her hair. Vanessa didn't like talking to any of the Grove Hill Estate boys, because she was absolutely terrified of them and was even more afraid to walk through the estate due to the gang crime that was mainly around that area. The gang crime wasn't just big in Grove Hill, it was everywhere in this town and the two main gangs were constantly battling for territory. However, for some strange reason Vanessa was more scared of the black gang than the white gang - I personally think they're both as bad as each other and I wouldn't trust anyone that was from the Mons or the Caps. And that was saying something, especially since Trevor was the leader of the Caps and my own brother.

"_Romeo & Juliet_, a classic love story and our main reading piece for this term." Miss Richards announced grabbing the books and handing them out to each of us "However, I want to make this lesson more interesting and that is why I have cast individual students to read each part. We'll be reading certain scenes and the others take notes while they see the scene acted out in front of them, this will give us a visual taste of Shakespeare's masterpiece."

That was actually a brilliant idea and I was seriously impressed with our teacher's creativity, but I was worried who she was going to ask me to read.

Miss Richards returned to her desk and picked up a piece of paper, reading aloud.

"We'll be reading Act 1 Scene 5, where Romeo first meets Juliet. Romeo will be read by Rashawn Mason and Juliet will be read by Jamie Cullen."

My jaw dropped in shock. This woman had seriously lost it, was she trying to make my life at school a living nightmare? Obviously she was, crap!

Reading a romantic scene with another guy… oh fuck, I was never going to hear the end of this.

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**Author's Note: Hey guys, thanks for reading and a review to give any feedback on this story would be awesome and very much appreciated :)**


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